The Houston Chronicle Home Price Survey came out last Sunday May 4, 2014. Every homeowner or wannabe homeowner looks at this.
The paper is a little cumbersome to use because it fills up pages. I just condensed some of their data into an easy to compare table

This little table gives a wealth of information. Candlelight Estates for example has a median SF (median: half the homes are larger; half smaller) of 2359 SF. That is a big house for this part of town. Typical year built was 1985,. That means lots of wood paneling; popcorn ceilings; lots of chopped up rooms. It will need updating, but it’s quite livable. There are some big, bargain priced homes there. If you want a pool…this neighborhood has them.

Neighborhoods Surrounding Oak Forest

Garden Oaks: 1940’s. That means typically block and beam homes with gorgeous old wood floors. Concrete slabs didn’t start appearing until the 1950’s. Even these had wood floors though. Carpet was relatively new.

Some of these prices increases don’t reflect the real change. For example, for every new $800K house that was sold, there was a tiny little $200K house sold and torn down. So lots of new homes means lots of sales on both ends of the scale.

An area to finally watch is Independence Heights. This is an area that has had no activity in decades. Today, every lot that comes on the market (or even comes up for a tax lien auction) is snapped up immediately at multiples of what it would it have sold for just two years ago. Right now, this is still an investment play, but a lot of property is being sold. See my recent post on a new historic district within Independence Heights. I sold a friend a house there a couple of years ago. He wishes he had bought several more back then.Garden Oaks is a unique area’ it was to be “the next River Oaks” when it was first built. If you like the area but you can’t find the home you want try the adjoining Oak Forest, or inside the loop, Timbergrove Manor/Lazybrook. These are similar neighborhoods…See the following pages for details:

Selling your house takes some planning and preparation. It is even more complicated with these older homes in Houston Heights, and other close-in neighborhoods. However, it is not too daunting a task with... Read More